---
title: Do Your Patients Really Understand?
description: Recent research shows frequent use of medical jargon during patient visits.
---

[Practice Support Services](https://go.northwestahec.wakehealth.edu/practicesupport)

# [Do Your Patients Really Understand?](https://go.northwestahec.wakehealth.edu/practicesupport/do-your-patients-really-understand)

 Written by [Leslie D McDowell, DNP, ANP-BC, RN](https://go.northwestahec.wakehealth.edu/practicesupport/author/leslie-d-mcdowell-dnp-anp-bc-rn) | Dec 8, 2021 8:00:00 PM

A recent [study](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0738399121005620) of 87 primary care encounters found that providers used at least 1 type of medical jargon without explaining it to patients in nearly 80% of appointments, with an average of more than 4 uses of jargon per visit. Fewer than half of the terms were explained, and overall, providers used a jargon term about once every 4 minutes!

 

Fully understanding your explanation and instructions is vital to good patient outcomes, providers often [overestimate](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23345336/) what their patients grasp. 

What can you do? Try simple [Teach-Back](http://www.ihi.org/education/IHIOpenSchool/resources/Pages/AudioandVideo/ConnieDavis-WhatIsTeachBack.aspx).

Here's one pediatrician's experience:

 

| **Practice Experiences** "I decided to do teach-back on five patients. With one mother and her child, I concluded the visit by saying 'so tell me what you are going to do when you get home.'...She could not tell me what instructions I had just given her. I explained the instructions again and then she was able to teach them back to me… I had no idea she did not understand… I was so wrapped up in delivering the message that I did not realize it wasn't being received". |
| --- |

The teach-back and show-me methods are valuable tools for everyone to use with each patient and for all clinic staff to use. These methods can help you:

- Improve patient understanding and adherence.
- Decrease call backs and cancelled appointments.
- Improve patient satisfaction and outcomes.

Interested in learning even more? Check out [Health Literacy Universal Precautions from AHRQ](https://www.ahrq.gov/health-literacy/improve/precautions/tool5.html)!

 

 

[View full post](https://go.northwestahec.wakehealth.edu/practicesupport/do-your-patients-really-understand)

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